The present invention generally relates to methods and apparatus for enhancing surgical planning. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for planning, validating and simulating port placement for minimally invasive surgery, such as laparoscopic and/or robotic surgery.
Minimally invasive surgical techniques generally reduce the amount of extraneous tissue damage during surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. One effect of minimally invasive surgery, for example, is reduced post-operative hospital recovery times. Because the average hospital stay for a standard surgery is typically significantly longer than the average stay for an analogous minimally invasive surgery, increased use of minimally invasive techniques could save millions of dollars in hospital costs each year. Patient recovery times, patient discomfort, surgical side effects, and time away from work can also be reduced through the use of minimally invasive surgery.
In theory, a significant number of surgical procedures could be performed by minimally invasive techniques to achieve the advantages just described. Only a small percentage of procedures currently use minimally invasive techniques, however, because certain methods, apparatus and systems are not currently available in a form for providing minimally invasive surgery.
Traditional forms of minimally invasive surgery typically include endoscopy, which is visual examination of a hollow space with a viewing instrument called an endoscope. Minimally invasive surgery with endoscopy may be used in many different areas in the human body for many different procedures, such as in laparoscopy, which is visual examination and/or treatment of the abdominal cavity, or in minimally invasive heart surgery, such as coronary artery bypass grafting. In traditional laparoscopic surgery, for example, a patient's abdominal cavity is insufflated with gas and cannula sleeves (or “entry ports”) are passed through small incisions in the musculature of the patient's abdomen to provide entry ports through which laparoscopic surgical instruments can be passed in a sealed fashion. Such incisions are typically about ½ inch (about 12 mm) in length.
Minimally invasive surgical instruments generally include an endoscope for viewing the surgical field and working tools defining end effectors. Typical surgical end effectors include clamps, graspers, scissors, staplers, and needle holders, for example. The working tools are similar to those used in conventional (open) surgery, except that the working end or end effector of each tool is separated from its handle by a long extension tube, typically of about 12 inches (about 300 mm) in length, for example, so as to permit the surgeon to introduce the end effector to the surgical site and to control movement of the end effector relative to the surgical site from outside a patient's body.
To perform a minimally invasive surgical procedure, a surgeon typically passes the working tools or instruments through the entry ports to the internal surgical site and manipulates the instruments from outside the abdomen by sliding them in and out through the entry ports, rotating them in the entry ports, levering (i.e., pivoting) the instruments against external structures of the patient and actuating the end effectors on distal ends of the instruments from outside the patient. The instruments normally pivot around centers defined by the incisions which extend through the skin, muscles, etc. of the patient. The surgeon typically monitors the procedure by means of a television monitor which displays an image of the surgical site captured by the endoscopic camera. Generally, this type of endoscopic technique is employed in, for example, arthroscopy, retroperitoneoscopy, pelviscopy, nephroscopy, cystoscopy, cisternoscopy, sinoscopy, hysteroscopy, urethroscopy, and the like.
While traditional minimally invasive surgical instruments and techniques like those just described have proven highly effective, newer systems may provide even further advantages. For example, minimally invasive robotic (or “telesurgical”) surgical systems have been developed to increase surgical dexterity and allow a surgeon to operate on a patient in an intuitive manner. Telesurgery is a general term for surgical operations using systems where the surgeon uses some form of remote control, such as a servomechanism or the like, to manipulate surgical instrument movements, rather than directly holding and moving the tools by hand. In such a telesurgery system, the surgeon is typically provided with an image of the surgical site on a visual display at a location remote from the patient. The surgeon can typically perform the surgical procedure at the location remote from the patient while viewing the end effector movement on the visual display during the surgical procedure. While viewing typically a three-dimensional image of the surgical site on the visual display, the surgeon performs the surgical procedures on the patient by manipulating master control devices at the remote location, which master control devices control motion of the remotely controlled instruments.
Typically, a telesurgery system can be provided with at least two master control devices (one for each of the surgeon's hands), which are normally operatively associated with two robotic arms on each of which a surgical instrument is mounted. Operative communication between master control devices and associated robotic arm and instrument assemblies is typically achieved through a control system. The control system typically includes at least one processor which relays input commands from the master control devices to the associated robotic arm and instrument assemblies and from the arm and instrument assemblies to the associated master control devices in the case of, e.g., force feedback, or the like. One example of a robotic surgical system is the DAVINCI™ system available from Intuitive Surgical, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
Improvements are still being made in laparoscopic, telesurgery, and other minimally invasive surgical systems and techniques. For example, choosing advantageous locations on a patient for placement of the entry ports continues to be a concern. Many factors may contribute to a determination of advantageous or optimal entry port locations. Factors such as patient anatomy, surgeon preferences, robot configurations, the surgical procedure to be performed and/or the like may all contribute to a determination of ideal entry ports for an endoscope and surgical tools. For example, ports should generally be placed in locations that allow a surgical instrument to reach the target treatment site from the entry port. They should also be placed to avoid collision of two or more robotic arms during a robotic procedure, or that allow free movement of human arms during a laparoscopic procedure. Other factors such as angles of approach to the treatment site, surgeon preferences for accessing the treatment site, and the like may also be considered when determining entry port placement.
If a robotic system is being used, robot positioning must also be determined, usually based at least in part on the port placement. Robotic placement will also typically depend on multiple factors, such as robotic-arm collision avoidance, angles of entry for surgical tools, patient anatomy, and/or the like.
Currently available systems generally do not provide methods or apparatus for determining advantageous entry port placements for laparoscopic, robotic, or other minimally invasive surgery. Although some systems may designate locations for entry ports, they typically do not base those locations on a set of factors such as those just mentioned. Furthermore, currently available systems also do not provide methods or apparatus for validating whether given entry ports will be feasible or for simulating a surgical procedure using the chosen entry ports.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have methods and apparatus for planning advantageous port placement for laparoscopic, robotic, and other minimally invasive surgery. Such methods and apparatus would ideally also enhance planning of robot placement in robotic surgery. It would also be beneficial to have methods and apparatus which allow verification that a given set of entry ports will be feasible for a given surgical procedure. Ideally, such methods and apparatus would also allow surgeons to simulate a surgical procedure using a set of entry ports and to reject the entry ports if they proved unfeasible. Also ideally, the methods and apparatus would be adaptable for non-surgical uses, such as choosing port placement for robotic entry into non-human systems for various purposes, such as for bomb defusion or handling of hazardous materials.